Lucas: A Winning Room

By Adam Lucas

SYRACUSE, N.Y.—This was a nice moment.

Freshman Andrew Platek had scored five points in his first trip back home as a Tar Heel. Carolina won the game, 78-74, an important road victory that puts them in good position for the final week of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season.

Coming off missing the Louisville game with a concussion, Platek was able to return for his first trip back to New York (he is from Guilderland, N.Y.), where his home sits approximately two and a half hours from the Carrier Dome. His parents, grandmother (a Syracuse grad who was wearing Carolina blue on this night, of course, because grandson trumps alma mater every single time), and approximately a dozen friends and other family were on hand. He made both his field goals, scoring five points in a game Carolina won by four, and was deservedly feeling good about himself.

What a great story. Hometown boy gets healthy, comes home, makes a contribution, thrills friends and family. This stuff writes itself, right?

"A bunch of my friends came who I didn't even know were coming," Platek was saying. "It was awesome. I had a lot of friends and family here, and to be able to help my team felt great. I wasn't that good defensively, but it felt good to be able to hit a couple shots and help my team."

One locker over, though, Kenny Williams wasn't impressed.

The junior tapped a writer on the shoulder. "You have to ask him," Williams said loudly, "why he is wearing six different colors."

You have to understand that Williams has a comment for everything. He's a little like the 2018 version of Bobby Frasor in that he's the Tar Heel you don't want standing nearby when you trip, or blow a defensive assignment in practice…or wear mismatching clothes out of the Carrier Dome. Because he will call you on it, every time.

"It's just what I grabbed to put in my bag," the good-natured Platek said with a grin. "In New York, you can do anything."

Not in this locker room, Andrew. Not in this locker room.

There's a special vibe to a winning locker room. It's louder, of course. It's happier. For those ten or 15 minutes when the team returns to the locker room after a win, everyone's mistakes are funnier, everyone's defense is tougher, everyone's big plays seem even bigger.

And everyone—everyone—has something to say.

In one corner was Joel Berry checking his social media. He made a post that contained a fairly obvious error, and then immediately caught grief for it, both from his teammates and his followers. "Oh man," he said with a groan. "I'm going to hear about that one."

Then there was the regular post-victory discussion about what to wear on the plane home. It had been coat and tie on the way up to Syracuse, of course. But the attire was open to discussion after a victory and a likely late night before class first thing in the morning. Berry had gotten in the shower, so Brandon Robinson had an idea. "If number-2 said we're wearing sweats, we'll wear sweats," he reasoned, referencing Berry's jersey number. A chorus of "Joel Berry said we're wearing sweats!" greeted this infallible logic.

Cameron Johnson sat at his locker. It hadn't been his best game as a Tar Heel, but it was a win.

"In a winning locker room, nobody is tired," he said. "People seem to buy in better. And it carries over to practice. There's a different feeling there. It's a different kind of happiness, a different kind of excitement, a different kind of looking forward to the future but also not looking too much to the future. You've got people going back and forth with each other, no one is talking bad about each other or the coaches. It's a great feeling."

You can just put those 79 words from Johnson in a textbook about how to recognize a winning locker room. Remember, he's been in a few of them, and he knows how to spot them. The last couple of Carolina teams have regularly had the vast majority of players sit around the locker room after practices for no particular reason other than enjoying each other's company. This year's group is developing the same chemistry.

The fact that on the bus after the win at Louisville this past weekend, Luke Maye was issuing invitations for teammates to join him on Sunday morning isn't the only reason Carolina shares the ball well enough to hand out 25 assists on 29 field goals against Syracuse—but it doesn't hurt, either. There is no apparent jealousy. There is no selfishness. There are some close friendships, but there aren't any cliques, and that's a big difference. If the team scoring is more important than me scoring, that's how you make that one extra pass, and that's how the Tar Heels beat the Orange zone on multiple occasions Wednesday night.

One day, Platek will be the upperclassman who's ribbing a wide-eyed rookie after a big game. Until then, though, Kenny Williams gets the final word. By then, Platek had left the locker room to go greet his friends and family, but Williams was still talking.

"He had, like, a teal shirt on," a very serious Williams said. "And then some green shorts. And then he wants to top it off with some black shoes, as if that's OK. You can't walk out of here with six colors on and think that's OK. And he had on shorts, and we're in New York in the winter! It's 32 degrees outside! I wish I could tell you what's wrong with him. There has to be something different going on in your head to want to put shorts on in the winter and to wear those clothes together. Right-minded people would see the problem with this."

About that time, Roy Williams stuck his head around the corner.

"What are we wearing home?" he shouted to his happy 22-7 team, winners of six straight.

Immediately, Robinson whipped his head around. "Joel Berry said we're wearing sweats," he said firmly.

Williams shrugged and smiled. The matter had been decided. "Well, Joel Berry said we're wearing sweats!" he said.

Williams ducked back around the corner. Robinson, in the center of a happy mass of Tar Heels, grinned and pulled on his sweatshirt.

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Luke Maye

Andrew Platek

Brandon Robinson

Kenny Williams

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